Pleas for minor offences go online

12th March 2015

A new digital service will allow people charged with minor motoring offences in England and Wales to make a plea online.

The new ‘Make a Plea’ service will begin to be rolled from March, following a successful pilot scheme in Greater Manchester.

People charged with summary motoring offences, including speeding, failing to identify the driver or using a vehicle without insurance, will be able to use a secure and easy-to-use website to respond to charges against them.

“Digital technology gives us an opportunity to make the justice system simpler, clearer and faster – and part of this means reducing or removing the unnecessary movement of paper, and people, around the system,” Courts Minister Shailesh Vara said.

Defendants will be able to make their plea from any suitable device 24 hours a day through the website.

The service will be offered as an alternative to postal pleas or attending court, and was developed with court users to meet their needs.  During the pilot in Manchester, nearly a third of people used the digital service to make a plea.

Some of the highest volume work that the police, prosecution and courts deal with is low level traffic offences. The latest annual statistics show proceedings were taken for half a million summary motoring offences.

These cases take up large amounts of court time despite, in many cases, the offender either pleading guilty by post or their case being proven in absence when they do not attend or contact the court.